“Professionalism in art has this difficulty: To be professional is to be dependable, to be dependable is to be predictable, and predictability is esthetically boring – an anti-virtue in a field where we hope to be astonished and startled and at some deep level refreshed.” John Updike Maude* began last fall’s concert cycle the way […]
Difficult Times
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Wasting Time
“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” Theophrastus A few weeks ago, I wrote about a problem ChoralNetter Trudy* was having at her church job. Everyone in this congregation was tardy, from the clergy to the choir to some members of the congregation for services. She was thinking about resigning but had […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: More Light
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Desmond Tutu Genie* tells me she suffers from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). She’s an elementary school music specialist as well as a professional church musician and every year, it hits her full force right after Christmas. It lessens in intensity […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Favorite Teacher
“I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.” John Steinbeck I have been thinking a LOT about my elementary […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Letters (emails), We Get Letters (emails)
“Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe It’s been a while since I shared correspondence from Ye Olde Choral Ethics Mailbag (Inbox) with you. Today I’d like to share letters from two ChoralNetters with similar problems. And as you can guess, these two folks are […]
Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics: Another New Year
“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” Benjamin Franklin I hated 2021. It wasn’t good for our country, no matter which side of the aisle you are on. It wasn’t good for my family. Or for our profession, for that matter, […]